Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler

A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.

Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.

She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion.

After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex’s MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters—symbolic or otherwise—and makes it quite clear that he can’t fathom Millie’s plan ending well for anyone.

But as they contend with peculiar bed-and-breakfasts, unusual small-town festivals, and deer with a death wish, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn’t share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn’t just about Mrs. Nash’s love story after all—maybe it’s also about her own.

Part rom-com part dramedy, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes has a stellar premise on paper that convinced me to pick it up blindly despite this type of romance genre being hit or miss for me. With an opposites attract setup, a long-lost LGBT love from the 1940’s, and a road trip featuring classic rock tunes, Sarah Adler’s Mrs. Nash’s Ashes has a winning combo that grabbed my attention from the get-go. The comedic elements and dialogue are stellar and the back and forth between the emotional and romantic Millie vs the detached and logical Hollis are easily the strongest bits of the novel. Unfortunately, I found the this book was full of missed opportunities to do more with its narrative and the conclusion veering off in an unexpected and disappointing direction.

The Miss. Sunshine and Mr. Overcast Grouch is a classic trope for a reason and Mrs. Nash’s Ashes is no exception. I found the witty banter and comedic timing to be spot-on with the best moments involving Millie doing something random or poorly thought out and Hollis reacting in stony disbelief. I liked the chemistry between the two leads, and I enjoyed the story the most when it was just the two of them together talking in the car. Whether it be about differences in their outlooks on love, the recurring punchline of Hollis’ awaiting Sex Appointment, or the frenemies jab at Millie’s ex Josh, there’s a lot of varied comedy that works really well.

As many typically ask about romance novels, yes there’s a decent amount of spice here. Millie has an uncontrollable wandering eye that thirsts for Hollis constantly which can be a plus or minus depending on the reader; for me personally it was a drawback. Mrs. Nash’s Ashes has an unfortunate tendency to bring up deeper conversations or explorations into its characters’ worries and psyche, only to cut it short with a makeout session or more. At first I could forgive the timing since it was comically amusing (Millie stop talking you’re being silly), but I grew increasingly frustrated and felt it was becoming a cop out method to either keep the story from getting too serious (which I always prefer) or to avoid a topic Mrs. Nash’s Ashes wouldn’t be able to pull-off. Instances on Hollis’s history that scorned his idea of romance, Rose and Elsie’s differences in the lives they envisioned, Mille’s processing of grief that she didn’t address over Mrs. Nash’s death, there were so many opportunities for the novel to do a lot more when it preferred to feature a sex scene.

A lighter read is perfectly fine but the experience started to go downhill in the second half of the book culminating with an ending didn’t stick the landing for me. Two notable plot twists occur once Millie and Hollis arrive in Key West. The first involving the core premise of the journey was not entirely unexpected (I liked the choice), and it gave me hope that the story was going to address some darker topics (reminiscent of Emily Henry’s Beach Read or Ashley Poston’s Dead Romantics). However, the 2nd plot twist between Hollis and Millie dashed that hope and with only 30 pages left, there was no foreseeable way either plot twist would be effectively executed. Most of Millie and Hollis’s sunny-grouchy development felt natural (if a bit cliched in a Mr. Perfectly Imperfect way) and the contrast between Josh and Hollis’ treatment of Millie I liked a lot. That is all thrown out the window (or should I say, chucked into the ocean), devolving into a contrived and cliched ending. Yes, it was a happy ending, but it felt wrong to me for a variety of reasons.

My other main point is that although the book states in the synopsis “Two Love Stories, decades apart. One chance to prove love is worth the ride”, Rose and Elsie’s love story did not feel developed enough. Their quiet meeting and Rose’s apprehension to approach Elsie started off great, but their story arc felt utterly rushed. Most of their story is told in chapters only 2-3 pages in length when there was so much opportunity to do more given the setting in the 1940’s (obviously a time when LGBTQ+ relationships were heavily ostracized and not possible) not to mention the implications of them both being involved in global wars. View Spoiler »You could potentially attribute this to Hollis not being too familiar with their life story since its revealed that these chapters are exerts from his rough manuscript written over the course of the trip, however that’s a in-meta free pass that feels lazy or cheap since that plot twist itself comes so late in the story. « Hide Spoiler

Once Elsie is shipped off during the Korean War and Rose is left with her husband Dick, I was utterly suffering from how much you could do from a character growth perspective that was not capitalized on. There’s a chapter between Rose and Dick Nash where he asks her about Elsie that was so close to being excellent, but it didn’t go far enough for me. Worse is that most of Rose’s internal thoughts, healing, and growing contentment happens off-screen/unwritten until a final chapter where she realizes she’s finally content with the life she has. There is no reference to why she was able to reach that conclusion, how her married life shaped her, her lost feelings to Elsie, or why she even mentioned Elsie to Millie to begin with.

Despite how negative this may sound, I generally thought Mrs. Nash’s Ashes was a cute and often quite hilarious rom-com read. The characters are good and the road trip down south was fun (though admittedly the first half of the road trip was a lot more entertaining and better executed than the second half). And yet I can’t help but feel disappointed by what the book ultimately covered by the time it finished in Key West. This is one where I probably should’ve turned off my brain for a low-stakes casual read instead of wanting it to be a more ambitious book. Ironically Hollis’ personality and outlook on romance is not that far off from myself (probably contributing to the humor in his banter with Millie). If this book and trip to deliver Mrs. Nash’s Ashes were supposed to make me a believer in hopeful romance, unfortunately I can’t say that it changed my mind.